


Rephaim

by BleedingInk



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Afterlife, Angels, Demons, Gen, Post Episode s09 e23, Spoilers for season 9 finale, Supernatural Creatures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-22
Updated: 2014-05-22
Packaged: 2018-01-26 03:51:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1673645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BleedingInk/pseuds/BleedingInk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So, what happens to angels and demons when they die? Gadreel is about to find out, and meet a certain demon along the way...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rephaim

He woke up to inscrutable darkness, the aftermath of the explosion still ringing in his ears. For a moment, there was nothing but confusion and dizziness: his body was freefalling in infinite spirals, and Gadreel (the small part of him that still clinged to that name, like it meant anything at all) wondered if perhaps he was falling onto earth again.

Delicately, like a petal flowing in the wind, he finally reached the ground. The angel took a deep breath, and remained where he was, in a cold, hard ground. He could feel the form of his vessel still contricting him, for some reason. That didn't make any sense. It should have been destroyed.  _He_  should have been destroyed.

There was a rattle near him, and when he sat up, he could see a small fire burning amidst the darkness, and the shape a woman sitting by its side, her profile hidden in the shadows.

"Well, don't just stay there," she said. "Come closer."

She was speaking in Enochian, and Gadreel hoped she was an angel like him, someone familiar that could explain him what was going on, but as soon as he took a few steps and the woman looked up, he realized his mistake.

"Demon," he hissed, and automatically searched for the blade hidden in his sleeve. It wasn't there, of course, but Gadreel adopted a defensive position nonetheless.

The demon shook her head; her pitch black eyes glistening. "Feathers, I don't know if you noticed," she said. "But we're not exactly in Kansas anymore. Those rules don't apply here. Sit."

Gadreel hesitated. Then, he approached her, and sat, trying to stay as close to the warmth as he could. The demon crossed her legs, adopting a lotus position, and stared at the flames without a word. She had long white hair highlighted by the darkness around. Strangely, except for her eyes and a subtle scent of sulfur, she had no other features that revealed her demonic condition.

"Who are you?" Gadreel asked.

"That's a complicated question," she snickered. "I had a name, you know? Once. But nobody ever bothered to ask. They called me Meg, and in the end, I got used to it, so you might as well call me that too."

"Where are we?" asked Gadreel after a while. He couldn't make anything out of their surroundings outside the small circle of light.

"That's an even more complicated question," she said. "Let me guess: you were fighting on an angelic battle of some kind, got stabbed and the next thing you know, you're here?"

"Something of the sort," said Gadreel, reluctant. He was still unsure if he could trust her with the full story. "How do you know?"

"You guys have been showing up with alarming regularity," Meg said. "Most of you got really offended you didn't end up on some superior version of Heaven and instead are stuck with the likes of me. Some tried to get violent, but I told them 'Honey, we're already dead, what could you possibly gain from that?'"

"Angels?" said Gadreel, who was still processing all that information. "This is... this is where angels come when they die?"

"Angels and demons, apparently," said Meg. "If there are any other rephaim, I hadn't seen them."

The term seemed to echo inside Gadreel's head long after Meg had stopped talking. He recognized the word, of course. It was almost as ancient as him, and it summoned images of disembodied shades vanishing in the air, glimpses of failed creatures, spectres without sentience that were long gone before Lucifer's fall, and way before Eden and its gates and Gadreel's own damnation.

"Rephaim," he repeated, and couldn't help but to tremble. "So is that what we become? A thoughtless nothingness, a shred of obscurity?"

"Look around you," Meg said, with a shrug, but there was bitterness in her voice. "Why do you think it's so dark in here?"

Gadreel shivered again, as the realization dawned on him. The shadows were simply the consumed consciousness of all his brothers and sisters, the complete oblivion to which they have all given in, the place where they all went to be forgotten.

"Some lose their minds faster than others," said Meg. "Some of them wander around. I think I've seen other lights, but I never run fast enough to catch up with them. But in the end, they all just... disappear."

Gadreel turned his attention to her. Meg didn't look disturbed or insane, but there was a spasm in the corner of her mouth, like she was biting back a scream.

"How long have you been here?" he asked her.

"A year? A century?" she said. "There's no way to measure time. It's been a while."

"How come you have not disappeared?" asked Gadreel.

"I'm waiting for someone," said Meg. She said it with unwavering conviction, but then added with a caustic smile: "I wish I could remember who it is. And I wish they'd hurry up."

Gadreel couldn't help the twitch of pity in his chest. It was obvious that Meg was tired and would rather just let the darkness take her, like it had taken all the others she'd met, but she still sat by her little fire (that burned on God knew what), still approached all that came her path, looking for someone with hopelessness, fighting in vain to retain her memories. Gadreel would have admired her loyalty... no, Gadreel _did_  admire her loyalty. There was no sense in keeping his distance and judging her for what she was. She was right. The rules of Heaven and Hell were meaningless now.

"Sheol," he said out loud.

"Gesundheit."

"No, that's the name of this place," said Gadreel. "Sheol. The place where God locked all the rephaim away."

"Well, thanks for the info," said Meg. Her tone had recovered the cynicism from before, like she regretted letting Gadreel see how scared she was. "Are you gonna give me a tour now?"

"You knew about the rephaim, but not about Sheol?" asked Gadreel, frowning.

There was a pause, like Meg was remembering how she came about that piece of information.

"Abaddon mentioned the rephaim," she explained, finally.

"Abaddon?" repeated Gadreel.

"Crazy bitch," Meg huffed. "She went all Ed Rooney when she became the last Knight of Hell back in the day. Thank... whoever she didn't remember me and decided to go looking for a way out instead. Wondered who did her in..."

Gadreel remained quiet. He had a vague idea what a Knight of Hell was. He had never heard of one called Ed Rooney, though.

"Is there?" he asked instead. "A way out?"

"Will I be sitting here if it was?" asked Meg. "This is the end of the line, angel. Get used to it."

"It can't be," said Gadreel, standing up and trying to penetrate the darkness around. "Metatron said that God always built a fail safe."

"What does the Transformer had to do to with anything?" asked Meg, and she seemed genuinely confused.

"No, he's not a shapeshifter," Gadreel explained, patiently. "He is... was, the Scribe of God. He said there's always a loophole, always a way out. I don't know how trustworthy he really is, but, Meg, if we can find it..."

"Woah, slow down," said Meg, although she was standing up again. "First of all, what do you mean 'we'? I didn't sign up for any team. And second, have you seen where we are? _If_ there's a way out, I bet it will be well hidden and custodied by something horrible and mean that would eat us up, and not in the fun way."

"I am aware it is dangerous," said Gadreel. "But I am not yet ready to give in."

As he hope, a white aura started radiating from him, like it had when he was a complete angel, when he had his wings and his blade and God had chosen him personally for a task he had failed at. But back then, he had glowed with pride, and now he did again, with determination, so bright it outshone Meg's little fire. He simply wasn't done fighting and righting his wrongs. The demon blinked, and looked away, like she was blinded.

"Well, I'll be damn," she said. "You really are decided to do this."

"Come with me," Gadreel offered her. "Maybe you can recover the memories you've lost so far. Maybe you can recall who is it that you're waiting for."

Meg's black eyes opened wide, and she separated her lips, like she was about to say something else. But then she closed it, and smiled. She didn't look as angry as she had before, and Gadreel wondered once again why she didn't look like all the other demons he'd met. Maybe here she could have whatever form she liked? There was no way to know.

"Alright," she said, finally. "What do I have to lose?"

Then she did something startling: she reached out for Gadreel's hand, and squeezed between his fingers. Gadreel half-expected her touch to sting or burn, but instead, her hand was cold in his. After the initial surprise wore off, he nodded, and then there was really nothing left to say. Without letting go of each other, they set off to face the darkness together.


End file.
